I couldn't find anything strictly comparing the Note 7/5 signal strength and radios for Sprint users upgrading from the Note 5. What are your experiences so far? Are both phones equal? Or does the Note 5 have stronger signal capabilities than the 7, vice versa?
CarolinaPride said:
I couldn't find anything strictly comparing the Note 7/5 signal strength and radios for Sprint users upgrading from the Note 5. What are your experiences so far? Are both phones equal? Or does the Note 5 have stronger signal capabilities than the 7, vice versa?
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I find the Note 7 signal strength to be very unreliable and inconsistent. It's probably my 3rd dislike of the phone. However the useless Bluetooth functionality and mediocre battery life really bother me more..
I have no issues with Bluetooth but your other 2 issues yes I do. They can be fixed in updates though so I'm keeping it
Sent from my SM-N930P using XDA-Developers mobile app
I've been with the s6 edge since launch and I can say at home I've never seen a 3g connection only LTE. Now with the note 7 it sporadically drops LTE to 3g more than a few times a day.
I really hope its just a lemon phone. Almost wonder if I should try to get sprint to swap it out
Sent from my SM-N930P using Tapatalk
Related
So I have been using the Galaxy Nexus for a while, before that I had the Droid Charge. Both phones have had pretty significant issues maintaining a LTE connection which by itself wouldn't be too bad but the hand off from LTE to CDMA had been pretty abysmal. I want to move up to the GS3 but I need to know if it has the same issues keeping a LTE signal. Also when it does lose LTE how long does it take to switch to CDMA and vice versa. Your responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I think there's only an issue with hand offs on AOSP based ROMS. Touchwiz ROMS are fine.
As far as the radio goes, it's adequate. It's not the best radio ever but it's good. 4G to 3g takes a couple seconds.
I wouldn't worry about those issues too much. As always ymmv with signal strength.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I'm usually in a strong 4g area, but I've had great coverage and signal. The only time it's gone down is when I'm inside of a building. FWIW, the GS3 has a new chip so the radios are a lot different from previous samsungs, from what i understood.
I have a T-Mobile CelFi booster because the way my house is built, which seems to block out signals to various carriers. The booster worked pretty well for Nexus 4 and HTC One. However, now that I have Nexus 5, I am getting consistently low bars of signal. People on other end of calls often tell me they can't hear me. I am not entirely sure if the booster just doesn't work with Nexus 5. Based on my observation, it seems to be trying to hang onto signals from the tower for longer before it switches to the booster, though I cannot say for sure because honestly I am not sure if that's how it works or not. Anyone have similar experience or might have a suggestion on I can fix this?
booster
What booster do you have?
koei7 said:
I have a T-Mobile CelFi booster because the way my house is built, which seems to block out signals to various carriers. The booster worked pretty well for Nexus 4 and HTC One. However, now that I have Nexus 5, I am getting consistently low bars of signal. People on other end of calls often tell me they can't hear me. I am not entirely sure if the booster just doesn't work with Nexus 5. Based on my observation, it seems to be trying to hang onto signals from the tower for longer before it switches to the booster, though I cannot say for sure because honestly I am not sure if that's how it works or not. Anyone have similar experience or might have a suggestion on I can fix this?
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Theory:
Nexus 4 doesn't provide LTE, only HSPA+. Nexus 5 is LTE. LTE is preferred over HSPA+ when available. Your booster is likely an older unit that only supports HSPA+ and does not improve LTE. Therefore, your Nexus 5 is getting boosted HSPA+ but ignoring it in favor of a weak LTE signal.
Just a theory, though.
Pandages said:
Theory:
Nexus 4 doesn't provide LTE, only HSPA+. Nexus 5 is LTE. LTE is preferred over HSPA+ when available. Your booster is likely an older unit that only supports HSPA+ and does not improve LTE. Therefore, your Nexus 5 is getting boosted HSPA+ but ignoring it in favor of a weak LTE signal.
Just a theory, though.
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Click to collapse
that sounds correct to me.
Pandages said:
Theory:
Nexus 4 doesn't provide LTE, only HSPA+. Nexus 5 is LTE. LTE is preferred over HSPA+ when available. Your booster is likely an older unit that only supports HSPA+ and does not improve LTE. Therefore, your Nexus 5 is getting boosted HSPA+ but ignoring it in favor of a weak LTE signal.
Just a theory, though.
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Click to collapse
This is certainly plausible -- however, it's puzzling as the OP indicated that s/he's having voice call issues. The old boosters only supported AWS, but I know of no T-Mobile area that would have LTE and PCS HSPA, but no AWS HSPA.
I have an old booster, and last I checked, it appeared that my N5 was using it just fine (I have no real coverage issues, but I stuck the repeater in my basement to improve signal there). However, I don't have LTE coverage at my house, so I'm unsure if there are any LTE->HSPA handover vagaries that the booster could be exposing.
There is a newer booster that supports LTE and PCS HSPA. According to a thread of Howard Forums, T-Mobile has them, but getting one appears to be a challenge. You may want to take a run at upgrading the booster by calling CC or retentions.
CommSoft8086 said:
This is certainly plausible -- however, it's puzzling as the OP indicated that s/he's having voice call issues. The old boosters only supported AWS, but I know of no T-Mobile area that would have LTE and PCS HSPA, but no AWS HSPA.
I have an old booster, and last I checked, it appeared that my N5 was using it just fine (I have no real coverage issues, but I stuck the repeater in my basement to improve signal there). However, I don't have LTE coverage at my house, so I'm unsure if there are any LTE->HSPA handover vagaries that the booster could be exposing.
There is a newer booster that supports LTE and PCS HSPA. According to a thread of Howard Forums, T-Mobile has them, but getting one appears to be a challenge. You may want to take a run at upgrading the booster by calling CC or retentions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my booster less than a month ago, older version. There are times where I get a faint LTE signal at my house, but the booster usually pushes HSPA+ over the LTE. Maybe the OP needs to position the booster and receiver in different spots? I had to do this as well. To the OP, do you suffer from poor call quality outside of your house in your travels, or just in your house?
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
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I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
I'm tempted to go to the Note 3. I can deal with alot of things, but signal issues isn't 1 of them.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
s13silviaguy said:
I've noticed the same thing.... my girlfriend has the Galaxy S3 and has better signal then me all the time... WTF?!?!?!?!?!
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Click to collapse
Your phone is showing data signal hers is showing cdma 1x voice. .. please download signal check app and you will see true db of 1x 3g lte signal. .. so you can compare
Sent from my SM-G900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signal bars lie. Do this on both of your samsung phones:
Go in to your phone app, and dial ##DEBUG#
Enter 777468 for your lock code
Select LTE Engineering
Go down to RSRP. The number next to RSRP shown in dBm is your LTE signal strength.
Compare numbers.
I did this vs my wife's iPhone 5 and found that although her signal indicator was showing 3-4 more bars than my s5 we both actually had the same signal strength.
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Eckono said:
Thanks I'll do that asap. The only reason I'm thinking something is wrong is because in areas I had 4G all the time on my Note 3 and S4 I'm barely get 4G or I'll drop to 3G. Then when I'm watching YouTube, if I stop a video , fast forward, or rewind, if I'm on cellular I can never get the video to play back. I get the error tap to retry. But when on WiFi I can I can.
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
You also have to read about cfbs and triband phones ... which can cause the data issues
Sent from my SM-N900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
well if i dont remember note 3 and s3 dont use the spark network and the s5 does soo,.,.its prob a bad spark connection they are still upgrading the towers ..
The s5 signal bar shows data strength instead of voice strength
When you make a phone call, it switches to the voice signal strength, which is why it seems to get higher all of a sudden
-Sent from Tapatalk
Eckono said:
My GS5 seems to have a very weak LTE signal. I disabled all bands except for band 25 because the phone was trying to signal hop killing the battery. My girlfriend has the Note 3 which can only pick up band 25. When my phone is right next to hers, she can have a very strong LTE signal and my GS5 will either have a very weak signal or drop down to 3G. The only LTE band in my area that's currently pretty strong is the 1900mhz band. I can barely connect to that. Anyone else having weak signal or connection issues?
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
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How do you disable certain bands? I want to try it as well as something seems to be killing my battery. Thanks
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
I have this phone it does drop lte alot plus I have spark. But I have an offer to trade for a note 3 idk if I want ..I like yhe fingerprint scanner but this signal is boo boo ....
gregg37 said:
Yea, in the last year I have had an iphone 5, Note2, and Note3. New Orleans is newly upgraded to LTE (not yet Spark), and coverage was great on those three phones. This S5, however, constantly switches from LTE to 3G in areas where the other three phones stayed on LTE. It also drops to no data at all way too often in areas where data is fine. (I play Ingress, so I am VERY familiar with the signal capabilities all over town)
Is there any hope of this phone's signal strength being improved with software updates? Will Spark make a difference when it hits New Orleans?
This piece of garbage is pretty pathetic signal-wise compared to my other devices I've recently used. I've got Sprint to agree to a phone swap, but if that's not going to make a difference, perhaps I should just go back to my Note3.
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Click to collapse
I wouldnt worry about the phone swap. I skeptically did it to see if it would work and ended up wasting an hour in ths store. between my friends and family we have 4 GS5s that all have the same issues.
None of your previous phones were triband. They only could connect to 1900mhz LTE. The GS5 is a triband phone, aka spark, that can connect to 800/1900/2600mhz LTE. Unfortunately there are issues with the software on the towers (search eCSFB) that changes you between bands. I have turned off band 41 and it has helped a lot even tho my area is a "spark" area. I turn it back on once in a while to see if things are fixed.
There have been complaints that the GS5 has worse connectivity because of the water resistant design compared to phones such as the GS4. its really only a couple dbm from what i have seen when looking at actual signal values from engineering screens and when comparing the same band of LTE.
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
Shiftlock said:
As far as shutting off bands, you will need your MSL code. you can either get it from a sprint rep (all i did was ask) or you can use the MSL reader here
tools.flashingtools.com
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
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Click to collapse
Thank you, Shiftlock! This is the kind of help I was hoping for. I'll give that a try!
:good:
Shiftlock said:
use dialer code ##3282# and go to edit. enter your MSL code and go to LTE. turn off B41 and restart your phone.
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Click to collapse
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
gregg37 said:
Ok I've got this turned off. Will it persist through resets and restarts? Or will I have to keep turning it off?
(have to remember to bookmark this so I remember how to turn it back on when Spark hits New Orleans, which I think is somewhat soon)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this will stay until you either change it back or do a system update. I noticed that nd2 changed it back. You may want to check it after clearing data/cache if you flash any mods or roms. Luckily the msl won't change so it's easy enough to fix if needed
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
eyecon82 said:
I'm getting LTE coverage in places I wouldn't with my s4. The data is definitely better
-Sent from Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
CCallahan said:
Better because of turning off band 41 or just comparing the S5 to the S4?
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Click to collapse
Guess we'll never know....
(mine still sucks after trying that, btw)
Hello Note 5 owners! I am planning a move from the note 3, but I am curious about the reception. Samsung in the past had bad antennas, and my area is fringe for 4G with the note 3. I would like to know if you have seen improvements with connectivity over your previous device, especially if you came over from the note 3.
Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
Anybody else finding that the reception on this phone is not as good as your previous devices?
I am on Verizon and I already have bad reception inside and outside of my house.
Previously had a Nexus 6p and LGv10 . Both had a hard time locking on signal but not as bad as the Oneplus7pro.
Are there any tweaks I can make to improve the reception?
I am fully capable of editing/flashing anything as I am unlocked/rooted/TWRP'd etc.
Thanks
Master X said:
Anybody else finding that the reception on this phone is not as good as your previous devices?
I am on Verizon and I already have bad reception inside and outside of my house.
Previously had a Nexus 6p and LGv10 . Both had a hard time locking on signal but not as bad as the Oneplus7pro.
Are there any tweaks I can make to improve the reception?
I am fully capable of editing/flashing anything as I am unlocked/rooted/TWRP'd etc.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not having issues.
I'm on Verizon.
My unlocked GM1917 has very good coverage & reception on T-Mobile.
Working well here with Metro.
No issues with AT&T.
I'm on Tmobile and my 7Pro unlocked (not Tmobile branded) is getting at least 30% faster download and upload speeds then my OP 6 with the sim card and same areas. I just pop it out and put in the other phone. OP6 is downloading at 123mbps and my 7Pro 20 seconds later is pulling 161mbps. So the new modem on the SD855 is significantly better. Not sure about the other carriers but the 7Pro network speeds are insane.
My GM1915 has better reception, wifi, and bt than my note9
How exactly are you gauging the quality of the cellular reception?
I'm on Verizon and had the OnePlus 7 Pro working for about 2 days. I haven't noticed any signal issues that I didn't already have with my Galaxy S8+.
Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk
I have Verizon also and no problems but keep in mind if you are in a bad area that the 7pro has no cdma to fall back on and will have to struggle on a weak LTE signal.
It also has no vowifi on Verizon so Google voice with WiFi calling on would be the only rescue.